> Can you explain to me how it is NOT on the same tectonic plate (the North American Plate) and then not part of North America geographically since physiographically it is....
>
>Now I wish I'd studied harder in geology class. My one and only D- was in geology - I didn't know a plagioclase feldspar from a cheeseburger.

That makes two of us. I'm not sure it's holding either of us back. (Just to be on the safe side, if Fuddrucker's has feldspar on the menu, don't order it).

I am trying to remember the last year I took geology. It may have been 8th grade.

No D's ever, so naah naah naah naah ;-) I got two C's one semester in Madison with a memorable new girlfriend and that was it other than A's and B's. All things considered, I do not regret those two C's. We lived together for a few months after I graduated and when I got a job offer in Dallas off I went. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if we had gotten married.

No regrets. What happens happens. I am not religious but I do believe things happen for a reason.

A couple of weeks ago the girls and I were joking around in the car and I remembered a conversation when they were little. Tricia and I were trying to explain to them that if we had not met they would not exist. They didn't get it. Allie said they would just have a different dad, like Tyler's dad. (Tyler's dad? Hmmm). "But you could still come visit us," Emily said sweetly.

You have probably already heard this a thousand times already. They grow up faster than you can believe. Katy is still a toddler but will be gone before you know it. Enjoy it!

Our other big laugh recently was over a NY Times article that literally had me laughing out loud. It was about how different cultures approach standing in line. In some, like England, it is a respected custom. Other places, not so much. One part that made me burst out laughing was a description of India, where breaking into line is so endemic guys practically spoon strangers so no one can cut in. Another was that when the first McDonald's opened in Hong Kong they had to hire workers to keep customers in line. People were shouting out orders and waving money over the heads of people in front of them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/world/asia/07iht-currents.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=standing%20in%20line%20in%20india%20and%20hong%20kong&st=cse